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Monday, 14 November 2011

Task Tacklers - Fireworks!

The 'Task Tacklers' from Earl Soham, Bedfield, Debenham, Stonham Aspal, Wetheringsett and Helmingham met at Debenham High School for their latest challenge.During the morning, the children experimented with a variety of compounds to produce the colours for fireworks. They discovered that green is made by using copper chloride, red by using lithium chlorine, purple by using potassium chloride and orange by using sodium chloride. They found this out by dipping the tip of a wooden splint into the substance and then setting light to it using a Bunsen burner.Iron fillings were then added which saw the creation of 'sparks' to the flames.After more experimenting, Mr Rockett and Mrs McBurney showed some fantastic 'explosions' using gas, washing up liquid and magnesium! Then it was time to design sparklers, followed by the making and testing!There were some fantastic ideas as the children worked hard to get the mixture of glue, iron filings, magnesium powder and compounds right to have the desired effect. This meant a continual cycle of making, testing and evaluating as the children tried to improve on what they had done previously.It was a simply great day.